Existential Anxiety Categorization

 

🧭 Can Existential Anxiety Be Categorized?

Not formally in psychiatry (e.g., not in DSM or ICD), but in psychology and existential philosophy, researchers have proposed severity frameworks.

Here’s one based on levels of existential need and suffering:

🔹 Category A: Low existential need (~30%)

Find meaning easily in relationships, routines, social roles.

Not preoccupied with “life’s meaning” unless a crisis hits.

Anxiety is rare unless major trauma happens.

🔹 Category B: Moderate existential need (~50%)

Desire meaning beyond survival/family, but still find fulfillment in work, community, or goals.

Existential crises may happen occasionally.

Manageable with support or minor reflection.

🔹 Category C: High existential need (~15–18%)

Ordinary life feels inadequate or fake.

Recurrent existential dread.

Meaning must come from something personal and unique — a mission, art, science, or suffering turned into action.

🔹 Category D: Severe existential need (~2–5%)

Meaninglessness causes chronic pain or despair.

Cannot function without a self-authored, transcendent purpose.

Often feel alienated from most of society.

Prone to depression, obsession, burnout, or suicidal ideation when meaning is absent.